National Highways has brought a section of the A35 to life after investing in two schemes to sow wildflowers along the roadsides near Dorchester.

Two recent drainage improvement schemes – at the Monkey's Jump roundabout and Max Gate junction – have created the opportunity to improve biodiversity and reduce costs.

Instead of importing topsoil and seeding to return the verges to grass, National Highways funded a scheme to introduce native wildflowers to the roadsides of the A35, which are not only visually appealing but will enhance and promote habitats for bees, butterflies and other insects.

As part of the company's biodiversity commitment, the company liaised and worked with the bordering Duchy of Cornwall estate, as how best to landscape the locations following the drainage work.

And thanks to funding from National Highways' designated Environment and Wellbeing Fund, a scheme was carried out last autumn to seed and restore 2,000 square metres of verge around the Monkey's Jump roundabout, 3,000 square metres around the Max Gate junction and a further 1,000 square metres of land around the Max Gate pond area.

Utilising chalk waste and rough soils from the drainage schemes, the initiative has reduced the export and import of materials, both financially and environmentally, and the seeding and landscaping initiative is reaping the rewards of its success with the locations now bursting into colour.

National Highways' Environmental Advisor Ben Hewlett said: "This is a great example of how we are moving away from simply minimising the impact of our work on the environmental impacts towards actually improving the environment through our work.

"We now have a policy to introduce low nutrient soils and wildflower verges as part of our major projects programme and working with groups such as Natural England and Butterfly Conservation, it's good to see this spreading into our regional maintenance and improvement work.

"The seeds have now germinated alongside the A35, a wildflower grassland is beginning to form and this will continue to evolve over the coming years – basically it means less money spent, less in maintenance costs and more biodiversity.

"The increase in wildflowers will not only have wider biodiversity benefits and provide some impressive visual displays, but it will also help to connect people with nature and improve the wellbeing of millions of people using our roads every day."

The wildflower seeding alongside the A35 included the likes of Horseshoe and Kidney Vetch species, Bee Orchids, Cowslip and Oxeye Daisy, which, as well as being visually appealing, will play an important role in supporting pollinators and butterfly populations, by providing abundant flowers as well as caterpillar food plants.

As part of the project, contractors Knighton Countryside created winter havens for other species, such as toads, hedgehogs and snakes, out of the cuttings, and by avoiding the import of topsoil to the site, the project saved £75,000 in material and labour costs, as well as a significant saving in carbon emissions associated with haulage.

Thanks to the initiative, National Highways will also:

• Improve safety by reducing the number of maintenance visits
• Reduce the carbon footprint through fewer maintenance visits
• Maximise grassland biodiversity in this location
• Reduce long-term maintenance costs by reducing vegetation growth

Clare Warburton, Natural England's Green Infrastructure Principal Advisor, said: "We welcome this step change in the way road verges are designed and managed, and this could make a significant contribution to recovering nature on our verges.

"Low nutrient verges can help to reduce the likelihood of invasive species like creeping thistle, and increase native species we love to see, like oxeye daisy and bird's-foot trefoil and even rarer flowers, such as orchids, as well as being great for bees and pollinators." 

Mark Schofield, Plantlife's National Road Verges Advisor, added: "Our research shows that nearly half of our entire flora grows on our verges, making this an exceptionally important habitat for wildlife, which needs all the help it can get.

"We warmly welcome this new approach – it's highlighted in our best practice guidance developed in partnership with National Highways and others.

"This new way of working is part of the systemic change our green infrastructure management needs if we are to reverse nature's decline, and this exciting move to reduce verge fertility is an effective way to reduce cost to the public purse and to reduce the carbon footprint of construction and maintenance, while improving road user safety due to reduced vegetation growth.

"The creation of more natural and less fertile soils in this way supports a greater diversity of native plants and the rest of biodiversity that depend upon them."

The Poundbury Nature Project has also been working in partnership with the charity People Need Nature, the Duchy of Cornwall, Dorchester Town Council, working with National Highways and Dorset Council to create new nature-rich places in and around the new extension of Dorchester, and enhancing others which already existed. Click here for more images of wildflowers in Poundbury.